The War Within
by Runaway Deviant
Summary: Takuya felt like he was at war with himself. The warmth that he felt inside himself was no longer pleasant; it didn't glow or smoulder, it burnt and scorched his throat. Set in the end of episode eleven and the start of episode twelve.


**Title: **The War Within  
**Universe:** Digimon Frontier  
**Theme/Topic:** Vritramon is the enemy within Takuya – the worst enemy of all.  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Character/Pairing/s:** Implied Takuji (reference back to my previous stories)  
**Word Count:** 1005  
**Summary:** Takuya felt like he was at war with himself. The warmth that he felt inside himself was no longer pleasant; it didn't glow or smoulder, it burnt and scorched his throat. Set in the end of episode eleven and the start of episode twelve.  
**Disclaimer:** If Digimon were mine, I would have already funded research into the possibility of there actually being a Digital World. As such, I do not own Digimon nor any of the characters therein.

* * *

Takuya felt like he was at war with himself.

The warmth that he felt inside himself was no longer pleasant; it didn't glow or smoulder, it burnt and scorched his throat.

He tried to scream, but all he could hear was the – _his_ – Beast Spirit's roars as it charged Blitzmon, charged his friend.

"Takuya! Keep it together!" yelled Kōji.

'I could give him a beating for what he did to me the other night now, huh?' thought part of him, but this was the part that his spirit acted on.

He attacked his friend, completely against his will and fighting all the way.

Kōji evolved, and Takuya began to cry, though no one but him could see it. His tears were hot like the worst sort of fire, and they evaporated the second they started rolling down his cheeks.

"HELP ME!" he screamed, desperately fighting the control of his rabid Beast Spirit, "I don't want to hurt you!" he sobbed angrily, trying to regain some semblance of movement in his – the Beast's – arms.

The Beast retaliated by smashing Blitzmon into a column, seemingly knocking him out.

Garmmon attempted an attack from behind.

The Beast threw him away with a flick of its tail.

Takuya wasn't one with this Spirit. Takuya was just a host to its anger, its hostility.

Why was this happening!

He didn't want to burn, he didn't want to fight; he just wanted to be able to protect his friends!

But now he was hurting them, and his tears intensified as the Beast picked up Blitzmon and threw him into Garmmon, knocking them both to the ground.

"NOOOOOO!" he screamed desperately, but the Beast translated his pain to anger, destroying columns and roaring thunderously at the sky.

"Why! WHY ME! GO AWAY! I DON'T WANT YOU, LEAVE ME ALONE!" he cried. He wanted to move his arms, his legs, but he couldn't. He felt like he was forgetting who he was- wait, what was his name?

He was Vritramon, that's right!

No...

No, he wasn't Vritramon.

Vritramon was the Beast, he was holding him hostage.

He was Takuya, the Chosen Child of Fire, and Vritramon was his enemy.

The Beast turned to face Takuya's friends again and he saw Izumi and Tomoki's worried faces.

He cried out, writhed, _screamed_ against what it was about to do, but nothing he did or said or _begged_ the Beast to do could stop it.

Garmmon fired at its feet. It jumped, high into the air, and landed on the other Digimon's head.

It raised a claw to strike his down, and Takuya screamed his protest and desperately begged forgiveness.

Blitzmon tackled him before he could finish.

"Thank you, Junpei!" he cried as the Beast hit the floor and they ran.

The Beast rose, and started firing as his friends retreated.

A forest fire began, and he felt like he was losing his mind.

He couldn't control it! He couldn't do anything at all, except watching the rampant destruction caused by the Beast.

And the worst part was that the Beast was _his_. It was his, and it resembled a part of him which he never, ever showed in full – his angry side.

He didn't get angry, not properly, not really; his anger felt acidic most days.

And now this anger had come to life in all the wrong ways.

He watched, numb, as his friends tore down trees to keep the fire from spreading too far or too fast.

Then the Beast was on the attack again.

It threw his friends to the ground and started stomping on Blitzmon's chest.

He heard Blitzmon's, no, Junpei's cries and he felt like he was shivering.

"I'm doing the same thing he did!" he sobbed bitterly, thinking of the possessed Shamamon's actions.

He suddenly regained control of his – the Beast's – limbs, and took his foot off of Junpei.

"Falling, I'm falling..." he said, feeling as though his stomach had risen into his chest.

But as he turned to look at his friends, he was once again frozen, burning, helpless to act as the Beast took back its body and ran at Takuya's friends.

The Beast spotted his other friends – friends who could no longer evolve, no longer defend themselves, presented no challenge – and roared his defiance of Takuya's control in their faces.

Blitzmon once again tackled the Beast, and it fell to the ground as his other friends ran.

He stood and lifted Blitzmon by his head and tried to crush it in his hands. Garmmon ran forward, only to be smashed in the face as Vritramon threw Blitzmon at him again.

Takuya would have curled up in a ball if he could have. He felt defeated, like he had been beaten down then tied to a stake for a burning he was now experiencing.

Why was this Spirit so uncontrollable?

Why did it want to hurt his friends so badly?

Had something happened to it in the past, had it been betrayed?

Why, why, why!

"NO! STOP!" he yelled, fighting the Beast as it threw his friends around like ragdolls.

"Stop..." he heard Tomoki say.

"Takuya-oniichan, stop it!"

"IT'S NOT ME!" he screamed, writhing within the Beast, fighting once more for control.

The Spirit was HIS; HE should be the one in control, not the Spirit – not the Beast!

Bit Vritramon saw Tomoki as a warped being – disgusting and evil. It picked him up and squeezed.

"TOMOKI! NO!" he cried.

"I believe in you," Tomoki said gently, and he began to cry while speaking to him, trying to free him from the Beast.

A teardrop landed in the Beast's eye, and suddenly its vision cleared.

Tomoki was no monster!

It put him down, but now all it felt was regret.

It burnt.

It turned and knelt, destroying a rock before finally, finally, letting Takuya go.

No one came near him. No one tried. No one wanted to see what he looked like – if he had changed.

No one heard the sobs that could now, finally, be heard.


End file.
